Van De Putte’s Lieutenant Governor Campaign Gets National Help From Howard Dean

Walking arm-in-arm with Wendy Davis at the MLK march earlier this year in San Antonio, Leticia Van De Putte (left) is trying to gain momentum as her Republican opponent is still being decided in a primary runoff.

Credit Joey Palacios / TPR News

In late April, former Vermont Gov. Howard Dean began an effort to encourage Democratic donors to support Leticia Van De Putte’s Texas bid for lieutenant governor.

Using his political action committee Democracy for America, Dean is also raising awareness through online campaigning, something many politicos say Dean gave birth to during his 2004 presidential bid.

"Democracy for America has a great tech history," said Scott Remley, Van De Putte’s campaign manager. "I know they sent an email to their more than 30,000 members in Texas and we were able to get a lot of support out of that. People came and visited the website, Twitter and Facebook page."

The message was titled "Take Texas Back From the Tea Party," but some on the right have criticized campaigns like Van De Putte’s and the Wendy Davis campaign for governor for accepting outsider help.

Democracy for America immediately announced its support for Davis’ campaign following her announcement that she was running in the gubernatorial race, but waited six months before giving Van De Putte the same recognition.

Officials with Democracy for America say they held back to see if the lower profile campaign was capable of winning in a reliable red state. In January the Van De Putte campaign had less than $300,000 in donations in a race where her competitors will spend millions.

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As her Republican counterparts continue to campaign against one another in a runoff, Democratic lieutenant governor candidate Leticia Van De Putte is taking her show on the road, hitting 16 stops across Texas during a nine-day bus tour.

Van De Putte said she is hoping this jump on the general election will boost her campaign while incumbent Lt. Gov. David Dewhurst and state Sen. Dan Patrick of Houston battle for the Republican spot on the ballot.

After months of using the Texas Democratic Party and staffers from the Lone Star Project as a makeshift campaign staff, Democratic candidate for lieutenant governor Leticia Van De Putte has hired a campaign manager.

Van De Putte said the decision to run came late for her campaign and that made it difficult to quickly hire a campaign staff. This week she hired veteran Democratic National Committee researcher Scott Remley as her campaign manager.

Update (4:40 p.m.): Mayor Julián Castro and state Sen. Leticia Van De Putte joined Democratic gubernatorial candidate Wendy Davis in San Antonio to support the rollout of the her pre-K campaign platform.

The three drummed up support from lawmakers, teachers and parents at San Antonio’s Amando Leal Middle School.

Van De Putte, who is running for lieutenant governor, said that she and Davis intend to make sure every business gets quality employees who have a great start when it comes to education.

Both gun groups and those wanting more restrictions aren’t surprised by Democratic gubernatorial candidate Wendy Davis’ position on open carry laws. Davis, in a written statement to the Associated Press, stated that she did support the practice for handguns and had a vision for how that would work in Texas.

The questionnaire asked the state senator from Fort Worth if she supported open carry and why. Davis answered that she does, but that governmental should be sensitive to private property owners, who may not want allow open carry within their facilities.